When we left the states in January, we had little idea of where we would end up. We planned the first month of travel, but flexibility and last minute decision making has rendered us our most cherished experiences.
India was just one of those experiences.
We ended up in India after clicking with a wonderful couple whom we dove with on the Great Barrier Reef in February. Four days out at sea can really solidify new friendships and by the end of the excursion we had an open invitation to stay with them in India.
Seeing that Chris and I haven’t passed up an invite yet, we quickly started reworking the schedule to fit India into our plans.
Jackie and Aron are from the United States but currently living and working in Bangalore. Jackie started a social enterprise called Essmart about 3 years ago (they help get renewable energy-type products to rural areas) and the two of them have been living there full-time for 2 of them. Since their move Aron, a mechanical engineering (and master tinkerer – he rebuilt both of Chris and I’s broken watches), has also started his own company, a consulting group called Psych Design (their website is pretty awesome…).
Outside of the badassery of running companies in a foreign country, the two of them have quite the travel resume. Shortly after meeting they rode motorcycles from Denmark down through Europe and into Western Africa on a several thousand kilometer journey which was at one point interrupted by a crash and eventual knee surgery (they resumed the trip 3 months later).
They’ve also done a bit of solo travel – Jackie hitchhiked through Africa for two years (!) and Aron became fluent in Spanish by some combination of travel between Central America and Spain. They’re the type of people that make you feel like you still have a lot of work to do…
Being with Aron and Jackie during our time in India allowed us to see beautiful places we may have otherwise missed.
Hampi is just one of those places.
Located about eight hours north of Bangalore, Hampi is home to hundreds of ancient temples strewn across the rocky hills of the region.
We peddled from from one temple to the next the first day and stopped to take a few (way more than a few) amazing shots.
**Cue pictures**
Oh and did I happen to mention that Chris was trying out a Fu Manchu look??
And it was awesome.
And we had some fun with the pano app on the iphone… it’s worth clicking on the pictures below to see the whole photo.
But peddling gets tired of course and so our second day we picked up some motors and hit the town!
